The Paradox of Balance
by Taiga
Summary: Balance is broken again as an old revenge plot is put into action. But what could be more frightening then the power of darkness itself? How about... Light? NOTE: on hiatus for rewriting, mainly the prologue
1. Prologue

**The Paradox of Balance**

_**Prologue: Foreboding**_

He was rarely awakened from his long sleep. In fact, now that the world had fallen back into the rather uneventful, if not to say boring, state of balance, Hermes really had no reasons to wake up. And yet he did.

Usually, when he wakes up, it is never a good thing, for he only woke up when balance was to be broken. After that awakening, he would usually stay awake as long as the energies would be uneven.

He didn't really have to sleep, it was just that eternity was a very long time… sleeping was a nice way to pass it more quickly. That and the fact that normal, regular life was boring.

He hated to admit it, but when the Dark Prince finally came back to the world two hundred years earlier, he had been rather happy about it. He knew pain and suffering would follow, but at least, the Mediator's job became less boring. His job as the Mediator was not only to create a common ground between the two powers that the humans referred to as the divine powers, but also to keep a close watch on the human dimension. He couldn't afford to let that dimension lose balance as this could result in destruction. If one world was to be destroyed, the repercussions would be felt on all planes of existence. Fortunately, it seemed that only the human world was truly susceptible to such imbalance. Even the demon world was more balanced then the human plane.

Humans are such bizarre beings…

Now, the world was back into balance. Light and darkness were at their places and it was time for Hermes to fall back into a long sleep. But yet…

Something in the back of his mind was nagging him, forcing him to stay awake. A tiny alarm, warning him of things to come, forcing him awake to complete his day job. "What now?" asked the supernatural being. "Can't I get a little rest?"

The worse part was that he knew that sensation from somewhere. He had already felt this type of premonition before: a simple feeling of dread, of future chaos.

But, as he has so well observed in the past, his memory was not what it used to be…

"Now when did I last felt this presence? This is strange… it is not the aura of darkness… what is this?"

Two hundred years ago…

_Oh no…_

He mentally cursed his slow dementia as he started to remember past events. He had already felt this feeling in the past, and it was never a good omen. The balance was starting to shift again, but this time, it was the same way it had shifted before the return of the Prince.

But how was this possible? Balance couldn't be broken this fast!

But he didn't have much time to think. As he started to ponder about what was to be done, a brilliant flash illuminated his domain. A giant mass of energy formed and exploded inside the royal library, crushing everything in its path, except for the Mediator. A strange distortion ripped into the air, swallowing Hermes before the last supports of the library gave in.

Wherever he was, it didn't really mattered, because now, he knew that hell was about to be unleashed.

"Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea what you are about to unleash?"

A female voice spoke from the emptiness of the dimension.

"Now Hermes, is this a way to salute your old mentor? I mean, after all this time…"

"Iris! What did you do?" cried out Hermes.

A figure started to form itself from bits of light. A rather unnatural woman started to form herself in front of Hermes. A type of being not very different from Hermes, higher then humans, but yet not as divine as the Goddess Poitreene, though belonging in the same realm.

"Of all beings Iris, you should know," screamed Hermes before being bluntly interrupted by the one he called Iris.

"I still find it strange Hermes," she said, not trying to hide her amusement in her voice. "I still find it strange that most beings in our positions, including the Goddess herself, tremble each time this power is unleashed… I mean who would have thought the only thing more fearful then darkness itself would be… light?"


	2. Chapter 1

**The Paradox of Balance **

**_Chapter 1: Prier's Bad Mood_**

_An hour ago, we received an urgent call from Sister Prune who was stationed at Moutarde Road. It appears that a large group of demons have been seen advancing towards Pot au Feu. We had been dispatched immediately to stop the ambush and secure the main road that linked Mayonnaise Harbor to the town. But, to our surprise, this "demon ambush" could have easily been qualified as only one thing…_

"This is so boring…"

Prier had already managed to destroy three Zombies only with one swing of her baton before the remaining demons started to advance on her. This "ambush", as Sister Prune had called, was nothing more then more or less ten regular Zombies. Of course, for the novice members of La Pucelle, this _might_ have passed as a dangerous attack, but for Prier, and even Culotte, it was a joke.

Even the dutiful Culotte felt as if the battle was a waste of time. He was unenthusiastically throwing his arsenal of projectiles into the head of one of the undead, reducing it to ashes. His sister was eliminating most of the Zombies, although she was doing so in a rather unconventional way. She was halfway between her normal fighting techniques and some sort of ballet dance. In a desperate attempt to amuse herself, she had started to jump around the demons, throwing her legs from behind, knocking them out, and wildly gesticulating with her arms, unintentionally hitting them in the face. And she soon found out that her mock fighting had eliminated the menace quite effectively, despite the fact that she wasn't even trying to eliminate them.

"That's it? This was the ambush? These wimps weren't even worth my time!"

"Well, you looked as if you were having fun…"

"Well, you know what? I wasn't! This is so boring! I need a real challenge!"

_Prier hasn't changed much… well maybe except for the fact that she is even more moody then usual. Her temper has been flaring up recently. I'm not sure if it's because of the lack of challenges, as she calls them, or the fact that she hasn't seen him for four months… Four months… _

_Anyway, Prier has been on demon watch for a while now. But, sadly for me, she hasn't had any real work to do recently. Sad for me, because I get to be the one getting the head trauma…_

The two siblings were slowly heading back into town. Apart from the small battle that took place a few moments ago, it was a rather peaceful day whose silence was only broken by the birds and Prier's grumbling. But for once, her source of annoyance wasn't completely related to her lack of work.

_A few days ago, Cresson Castle has been attacked. Nobody knows why or how, but it has been reported as a direct attack to the royal family. We were happy to know that nobody was hurt, the attack had targeted the royal library and no one was in it at the moment. This was reassuring. The Queen did not request La Pucelle's help: the police and the royal guard are looking into the matter. Prier is worried about Eclair; due to the attack, we haven't received the permission to visit her. Needless to say, this did not help my head trauma…_

"I am a woman of action! Why can't I be where the action is?"

"Prier," started Culotte, "we are supposed to keep the balance between light and darkness, we are not supposed to hunt down all demons in Paprica just so you can get over the fact that Croix…"

He never got the chance to finish his sentence as a rather hard knuckle connected with the back of his skull.

"Do you really want to finish that Culotte?"

"Usually… you are supposed to say that _before_ hitting me…"

_Like I said, Prier... Head trauma..._

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"My Brothers and Sisters, the time has come!"

About three dozen men and women where listening to their Priestess. Even though the entire décor didn't inspire much trust nor optimism, all were in awe. The speaker was in a very good mood, something that her followers hadn't seen in a long while. She continued, "After all these years of discrimination and suppression, we can finally emerge. Long live the children of Poitreene!"

"Long live the children of Poitreene!" they all cried back.

"We can leave this underground hiding ground and worship Her without being branded as enemies," she said before being interrupted by more cheers from the crowd. Being unable to control them, she simply raised her voice even more and went on with her speech, "But our enemies are still present in the world. In fact, our most vicious enemy is still running loose. Our spies have confirmed our worries. Yes… I am afraid to say, the Dark Prince is still walking this Earth."

Although the entire assembly demonstrated various exclamations of surprise, fury, and desperation, it was the older generation members that had the worst reactions. Having lived during a time where humanity had been under constant menace by the evil servant of Calamity, the memories of their youth were usually dark and sorrowful.

"We have to unite! We have to secure our future!"

_By any means necessary..._

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"It's nice of you to have us Fath… mister Salade."

"Well, it has gotten rather boring without your sister's presence."

"You think so? I'd give anything to have one day of peace and quiet."

_After our battle with Noir, Father Salade resigned from the Church. Sister Olive has been temporally appointed as the head of the Church and the demon hunting squad. Father Salade, or mister Salade as he wants to be called now, now lives with his wife in the orphanage. Prier and me go visit him ever so often. He seems to enjoy his retirement, although the children and the director have told us that he stills sneaks around to go train in the Caves. I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks._

"How is Prier nowadays?" Salade asked.

"She's good…"

"And you?"

"You know me, apart from head injuries, I'm fine!" he answered with a nervous laugh.

Salade looked down and sighed. "That's not exactly what I meant Culotte…"

A loud noise was heard outside, followed by the sound of broken glass, and giggling children. "Please don't tell me Prier has been teaching the kids how to play her version of kick the can," said Culotte, knowing far too well how any game played by Prier had a fifty percent chance of ending in propriety damage.

"No actually, that was me…"

"Father Salade!"

"Heh, heh, like I said, it's pretty boring around here…"

_I'm beginning to understand where Prier got it all..._

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

The entire church was busy. It was rare that a fellow congregation would come and visit. Usually churches didn't bother with each other. It was a simple fact that they usually didn't like each other very much, due to different points of view, different worship rituals, or, something that they didn't admit out loud, the fact that they were in constant war for followers. But Father Salade had managed to keep his church free of these problems that corrupts so many others. The Church of the Holy Maiden had kept its mission.

Culotte was running around the living quarters, trying to find his sister. He had already checked her usual hiding places, primarily used to make herself invisible whenever physical chores where mentioned. He finally found her in her room, dressed in traditional nun clothing. She had her : "Say anything and I will hurt you!" look on her face.

Sister Olive had selected them to help with the visitors, even though much of the Church thought that Sister Olive was committing double suicide by involving Prier, who still had the nasty habit of saying whatever she wants at the worst possible moment.

Nobody was sure of what to expect when the visitors arrived. "They seem normal enough," was Prier first thought as she saw three members of the other church arrive. She would be lying if she didn't admit that she was expecting more followers-slash-demons draped in black cloths to arrive and proceed to blow up her home.

The three members of what was called the Church of the Goddess Poitreene, to which Prier silently pointed out the un-originality of the name to Culotte, happily answered to Sister Olive's welcome. High Priestess Corail was leading her two followers for this visit. She said that this church had existed for hundreds of years and that her tradition had been passed on in her family. Although Sister Olive and Culotte seemed deeply interested in the whole church's roots discussion, Prier was more or less bored by the entire conversation. But, she remained calm and mature about it, and instead decided to observe the two Sisters that had been left out of the conversation.

She didn't understand at first, but the Sisters were nervous. Prier dismissed it as regular shyness, but something was off. They were eyeing the church much too intensely to pass as normal shyness. And when her eyes crossed theirs, she knew something was terribly wrong.

"Sister Olive!" she yelled, interrupting their conversation. Sister Olive glanced at Prier with a murderous look in her eyes that calmed down as she saw her "We have a problem" face.

"Please understand," said Corail cutting off the silent discussion, "that this world doesn't need or tolerate traitors."

And before their minds could even analyze what the Priestess had said, a brilliant flash followed by an enormous column of fire exploded out of the church, throwing everyone back in a shockwave of broken glass.


	3. Chapter 2

**The Paradox of Balance**

_**Chapter 2: The traitors of Poitreene?**_

"Your Majesty, we would ask you to reconsider our proposition."

Queen Crepine and Princess Eclair had both received a strange visitor. Claiming to be from "The Church of the Goddess Poitreene", he came bearing what he called important information about the Church of the Holy Maiden.

"My good sir, you are excepting me to believe that our beliefs are false? That after all this time, followers of darkness using the cover of Poitreene have ridiculed this country? And worse, you expect me to believe you, a person who speaks on the behalf of an unheard organization, while you bring no proof or no real arguments of some sort?"

"Your Majesty, the belief of Poitreene is strong in this country, but it comes from your own heart. The teachings of these traitors didn't get the time to affect you…"

"Enough!" cried out Eclair, who had all the reasons in the world not to believe this stranger. He had no right to say all these things about Prier and the others. For half an hour, that man had been telling them how the Church of the Holy Maiden was only used to worship the power of darkness and how they where waging war against Poitreene. This pained Eclair deeply, as she had fought alongside the Church and knew that those allegations were false.

"Your Majesty," he said using a darker tone, "I didn't want to be the one to inform you of the dire situation that we are all in. Your Majesty, the Dark Prince lives! And it all thanks to the Church of the Holy Maiden."

That caught the Queen's attention. In fact, the entire room went silent of shock. But nothing could compare to Eclair's reaction. Her face turned white and a small gasp escaped her. Fortunately, the messenger mistook her reaction as shock.

How could anyone know about the Dark Prince? In fact, the only person outside of their group who knew the entire truth about him was Sister Olive. Most of the church knew that he had returned, but none knew about Croix. For everybody's sake, the return of Calamity's servant had remained under wraps, only small details had been released to the public.

But how could he know about Croix? No one knew about him? "Or maybe," thought Eclair, "he only knows about the Prince and not Croix." Although he had hurt countless people, he wasn't completely responsible, and, after living through what he had to endure on **_that_** day, how could one only feel resentment towards him?

"Princess Eclair?" asked her mother. She trusted her daughter, but she knew that she had aided La Pucelle in that fight against the Church of the Divine Mother. Eclair simply gave her a "Please just trust me on this one" look, though sadly, Crepine couldn't completely accept it that point.

"I have complete faith in Sister Olive and in the institution our previous Father had installed in this country," she concluded, "I will ask you to leave."

As he left, the Queen turned to Eclair, who must have implored the divine patience in order to keep her more or less cool attitude. "Eclair," Crepine asked, "what exactly happened while you were out?"

"I beg you mother, please do not ask anything now, and please put your faith in me. You do not know the entire story surrounding these events."

The Queen didn't have time to answer her daughter as one of her guards came running into the throne room.

"Your majesty, it's an emergency. In Pot au Feu, the Church of the Holy Maiden has been reduced to rubbles."

Both of them let out a sharp, "What?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Culotte always wanted to experience the feeling of flight, but if it included the sensation of being hurled into the air and crashing on concrete, back first, he thought it would be wise to never wish it again. Desperately trying to get up after the explosion, he realized that the pain that shot through his lower back paralyzed him. He was grounded.

Presently, the only thing his mind was telling him to do was to watch as debris of the Church fell near him. This prevented him to notice the enemy nun raising her arm over his head, knife in hand. He spotted her too late as the knife came too close to be stopped. Fortunately, a strong wind blew her away before she got hit by a twirling baton that knocked her out.

"Culotte! Get up!" Prier cried.

Using all his strenght to conjure a blessing miracle to heal him, he jumped to his feet seconds before the other nun, seeing the feeble Culotte and her wounded partner, decided to extract revenge. Culotte spun around and managed to summon the giant cat to block the enemy's way. She crashed into the giant rocket powered plushie, both frustrated and confused at the situation.

Prier decided to multi-task as she ran towards her brother, punching the confused nun in the face, while trying to pass her nun clothing over her head.

"Pr-Prier! Not in public!" cried out a shocked Culotte, later realizing that she had kept her demon hunting gear under her robe.

"Culotte! Your mind, out of the gutter, now!"

A shot of energy radiated near them, but thanks to their reflexes, it only managed to create another hole in the ground. Nevertheless, the Priestess Corail simply grinned, "You are fast, I'll give you that. But what can you do? I clearly have the advantage here; you have no weapons, no power, while I do! Your power cannot win against the will of the Goddess. Give up, and I will erase your sins."

Although Culotte didn't understand what Corail had said about her power, he knew that this women was clearly ignorant about them. He came to the conclusion that she knew nothing about what she was fighting against. Either, like Noir and his followers, they worshipped a Goddess other then Poitreene, or that this woman clearly knew nothing about this church.

And while it was true that Prier's Holy Wind technique left her weaponless, it had been a fatal assumption to say that she was now feeble as Prier was at her deadliest when unarmed.

Prier lunged at the Priestess, who clearly didn't expect the demon hunter's reaction. Corail's hand glowed white and shot a ray of holy energy at Prier who simply jumped over it and landed, foot first, right in Corail's face, sending her to the ground.

"The woman has great power", she thought, "but she clearly has no fighting experience."

But, a beam of energy hit her right in the stomach, sending Prier into the air. Getting up, she came face to face with her enemy. That woman was physically weak, but her recuperating abilities were amazing. Even Prier was a bit jealous to the fact that someone managed to heal so fast after her famous kick.

Using her amazing speed, Prier jumped to the side before Corail could notice. Corail's hand glowed again and she rotated her entire arm in an uppercut, creating an energy ark. Prier jumped again, cursing at the fact that although the attack didn't hit her, it had prevented her from getting close. In fact, Corail noticed Prier hesitation in her attacks and continued with her energy arks, understanding that as long as she did this, no attacks would be launched.

The two other nuns, having recuperated from before, decided to attack Prier's younger brother. Understanding that he was the weakest, they both launched their attacks against Culotte, who was still tired from his wounds. Both of them launched a simultaneous holy spell at him. To their dismay, although the spell did hit the target, the child was still alive. Using the last of his strenght, Culotte chanted. Bolts of lightning fell from the sky, directly on the two nuns. Unable to battle, they collapsed on the ground, followed by Culotte himself, having depleted his energy.

"CULOTTE!" cried Prier, who was still jumping and dodging Corail's attacks. Sadly, that split-second of inattention permitted Corail to connect her beam to Prier. She cried out in pain as it hit her directly in her chest area, sending her crashing into the concrete and cutting off her air supply.

Corail approached Prier, her hand beaming. "Goddess Poitreene, grant me the strenght to vanquish your enemies. Forgive me," she said, addressing herself to Prier now, "but you are beyond salvation now. Die for your sins!"

Prier, lying on her back, swished her leg at the Priestess ankles, making her trip and giving herself time to get back up. She managed to jump back, away from her, but due to her labored breaths, she couldn't attack. She just stood there, desperately trying to fill her lungs with oxygen. Corail got up and fired another shot of energy at Prier. But she simply stepped to the right, avoiding the beam completely.

"Don't tell me," she managed to say, "that this is the only attack you have."

"What are you saying?"

"You've been attacking me non-stop with this attack. Its becoming easy to dodge it," she said mockingly. "You have no other attacks…"

Prier ran forwards and jumped into the air, launching her foot. Sadly, Corail slid under her as Prier was airborne. As she landed, Corail started to cast her spell, knowing that Prier couldn't easily dodge if her opponent was directly behind her.

Prier blindly flung her arm backward, her fist connecting with Corail's face. Losing no time, she spun around, shoving her elbow into her stomach. Not losing her momentum, as she came to a stop in her spin, she high kicked the Priestess right in the nose.

As she fell to the ground, Corail's body shone blue. She barely touched it before she was up again, completely healed.

"How the heck am I supposed to beat that bitch?" thought Prier without really thinking. Prier, having no healing abilities useful for the battle, was getting more tired and hurt by the second, and the Priestess just kept on accepting her beating, only to heal herself. "This isn't good… I can't go on like this for much longer," she said as she ran forwards her enemy once again.

"Who's the one with the predictable attacks?" Corail asked mockingly.

But unlike Corail expected, Prier's dash ended as the girl plunged at Corail's feet. The beam passed right over her head, harming only some stray hairs. She propelled herself upwards, delivering one of her famous uppercuts right in her jaw.

"You…" Prier concluded.

Once again, Corail managed to heal herself before she even hit the ground, which send Prier into a series of swears not fit to come out of a member of the clergy. Anticipating her attack, Prier moved out of the way of the holy beam. Except, this time, the beam wasn't aimed at the girl, it was aimed at the ground. The force of the impact send bits of concrete and dirt flying into the air, and right at Culotte.

"Culotte!" she yelled. Expecting the worse, Prier closed her eyes and rushed forwards, only to bounce off face first on an invisible barrier.

"Mha Yjahw," she said looking up, rubbing her face. Sister Olive was standing behind the force field, Culotte, awake but shaken, standing next to her.

Corail looked at the situation. Even though the three of them were tired and hurt, she didn't feel like facing three elite members of La Pucelle all at once. Plus, she was rather shaken to the fact that a child could keep up so easily with a High Priestess of Poitreene.

Using the cover of the commotion, Corail escaped the church's ruins and hid herself into the crowd, incognito.

"Sister Prier, are you alright?" Sister Olive asked.

"Where is she? I'll kick her butt! I'll wipe the floor with her face!"

"Prier… calm down…" tried Culotte, knowing far too well that Prier couldn't be calmed this easily after what had happened.

"This is horrible…" started Sister Olive, knowing deep in her heart that most members of the church probably didn't survive the blast. "Why would anyone do such a thing?"

"I've heard them call us traitors…"

"Traitors? Prier… have you started taking money out of the collection plate again?"

"Ix-nay on the oney-may," cried out Prier, "and no, I haven't! In fact I have no clue why…"

"Well, they seemed pretty mad at us… and they attacked a lot of innocent people just to get to the church…"

And at that moment, the three of them came to the same conclusion.

"Father Salade!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"And then, I punched her in the face, just like that!"

If Prier and the others were expecting the worst at the orphanage, they were pleasantly surprised as they entered the building. Three nuns were lying unconscious on the floor, and three young pre-adolescents were happily retelling the events.

"It was amazing!"

"It was so fun!"

"One more step towards becoming a demon hunter."

"But… they are human…"

"Details!"

It appeared that as soon as the church exploded, three nuns showed up at the orphanage. The nuns started an attack directed at Salade, but it seemed that he had his own plan…

The kids, having been trained by Mister Salade, who was actually bored in his retirement, launched their own counterattack at the invaders. They took one down, as Salade managed to subdue the two others on his own.

"Prier, Prier, I might become stronger then you one day!" cried out one of them.

"Good luck kid…" she said, still dumbstruck at the situation.

Salade, on the other hand, was talking with Sister Olive. After a few minutes, she left the orphanage, heading towards the remains of the church. Salade made a quick nod to his wife, and she led the overexcited children out of the room. When he was sure that they were alone, he turned one of the nuns around. "What do you see?" he asked.

"They… they are from our church!" said a rather surprised Culotte.

"So… we've been infiltrated…"

"Not just that Prier… but these three have been members of our church for a while now…" said Salade softly.

This hit them hard. This meant that this entire thing had been planned out a long time ago. Who knows what they had learned while spying?

"But how can they consider us traitors then?" asked Culotte. "What did we do that has been so bad for the world?"

Silence reign over the room for a few minutes, each in deep thoughts, although Prier was half thinking about the situation, half thinking about how she would kill "the bitch" as she had now dubbed her.

"What if…" started Culotte, "they know…"

"Know about what Culotte?"

"You know… about… him?" he said hesitatingly.

It hit Prier harder then any attack that woman had cast on her. Her face turned to white and she simply stood there dumbstruck. "Croix," she finally gasped before she pushed Culotte aside and dashed out of the door.

"Prier! Wait!" he called out before running after her.

Salade and the director, who hearing the commotion, came back, just stood in the doorway.

She smirked. "You know Salade, although I don't know exactly what has happened, I must say that I'm surprised."

"And why is that?"

"Well," she said grinning, "if a few years ago you would have told me that Prier would run off like that for a guy, I would have told you that you were off your gourd."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"What has your oracle told you?"

"That soon, it will be our time to strike."

"Are you sure, the human world reeks of light… It gives me shivers…"

"Do not worry Petrol, distortion will arrive soon, as a matter of fact…"


	4. Chapter 3

**The Paradox of Balance**

**_Chapter 3: Under the Fallen Rain_**

"Why does she always have to be so… so…"

"Impulsive?"

"That's a more polite term then what I had in mind."

Salade, Sister Olive, Culotte, and the survivors of the attack were rummaging through the ruins of the church. They would often find the corpses of their fellow members and friends. At first, most of the members would breakdown after the discovery of one of the bodies, but after the tenth, they simply didn't care anymore… no more tears or sadness could be seen. Psychological fatigue just badly hit them. And when the rain started to fall, well the morale of the cleanup crew sunk even lower.

Many citizens of Peu au Feu also helped to pitch in, though most simply stood back, trying to contain their anger towards the monsters who could have done such a terrible deed.

Queen Crepine also sent help. The incident of Cresson Castle had been forgotten rather quickly as the church got destroyed. The Queen sent most of her guard to help out with the cleaning and the protection of Peu au Feu. Although doubt about the Church of the Holy Maiden had sadly crept into her heart, she couldn't just leave them after this disaster. She also couldn't prevent her daughter to run off with the guards towards town. When news of the explosion reached them, Eclair almost dashed out of the castle. Fortunately, she had managed to keep her mandatory royalty dignity.

"Hmm Culotte," the princess laughed softly, "since when do you use those kind of words?"

"Ever since I got hurt more by Prier then the people who did this," he concluded, gesticulating towards the ruins.

After Prier spontaneously decided to run off to find Croix, Culotte tried to catch up with her and talk some sense into her. How could she ever find him if she simply ran off into the continent just like that? Of course, as he tried to stop her, Prier jammed her fist into his face, giving him a very visible black eye.

At least this made Prier go back and actually get supplies for a long trip. The director gave Prier enough money and vital supplies for at least one month. When an outrage one-eyed Culotte asked her why she had helped Prier, the director simply muffled something about reaching puberty and love under her laughs as she handed him a piece of Mooboo meat for his eye.

"But," started Eclair, "why would Prier go off to find Croix anyway?"

"Oh, well, we believe that he might be in danger," Culotte answered rather coldly, although she couldn't figure out whom this coldness was directed at: Prier or Croix.

"Why would he be in danger?" she said a few seconds before remembering the messenger from before.

"Well, a bunch of people from the Church of the Goddess Poitreene showed up and…"

"Culotte," she interrupted, "get mister Salade, we have a big problem!" She understood everything now.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Great, this is just great…"

Prier still couldn't figure out why she had decided to follow her stupid impulsive mind to go on a stupid spontaneous trip over Paprica to find her stupid boyfriend… And then she had to stop as she just realized that she had just called him "her boyfriend".

"Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb…" she kept repeating to herself as she just continued down the forest path she was following, not noticing that she was gradually turning red. At least this made her stop ranting on the fact that she had managed to get lost, while she was already lost…

"Last time I ever let my spontaneous mind control me," she said, later realizing that she had made that deal with herself about a million times before.

She was rather pissed. She had no idea where she was or where she was supposed to go. She had been walking aimlessly for the past five days, bored stiff. Not only was it bad enough that she had no clue what to do, she had absolutely nothing to do! There were no demons, no monsters, nothing, nada, zilch! You would have thought that monsters would be waiting to make a tasty meal out of her, but no, this place was barren of lifeforms, except for Prier and the occasion animal.

It wasn't that Prier's only idea of something to do was beating random things up, it was just that recently, she has had no work. It was like if the demons and even the monsters were taking a permanent vacation. She was a woman of action, she hated having nothing to do, and sadly, walking around the country was considered doing nothing.

Although the demon population had increased during the matter with Noir, the overall population shouldn't have decreased this dramatically. And from what she could remember, it wasn't that other people were hunting the demons: there had been almost no reports of any random attacks, the only small exceptions had all looked like the Moutarde Road "attacks".

Something wasn't right…

She kept on walking as night fell over the already rather darkened forest. She had already walked for about two hours and she was getting rather tired. She slid down the side of a tree, resting her head and closing her eyes. She allowed the night to get the best of her.

But still… something wasn't right…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"How could I let such a young child win? Is the power of Calamity this strong?"

Corail was in her own private section of her church. It was her own worship place, only she could access this special place. This is where she, and her predecessors, had received important revelations about the world. This is how her followers had managed to escape the "witch" hunt that killed so many about two hundred years ago.

"No," she said, "the power of light is stronger then anything in this world. This poor child, it is sad that she must be destroyed, but, her salvation is impossible."

She simply stood there for a long time, nodding her head as if she was in agreement with herself.

"Do not worry Corail," said a voice that came out of nowhere.

Corail's eyes snapped open as she noticed a brilliant mist forming over the altar. She immediately threw herself on her knees, bowing down so low that her entire upper body kissed the ground, no matter the pain that position brought her.

"Corail… you must complete your mission… rid the world of darkness…"

"Do not worry mistress, we will soon destroy the Dark Prince and those who permitted his rebirth."

"Do not forget," said the voice, although it seemed sadder, "do not be deceived by the others, they have brought disgrace to the name of the Maiden of Light by confusing her."

"We will not fall for these tricks mistress," she concluded as the mist evaporated into nothingness.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So… they are really going around saying that we resurrected the Dark Prince?"

"Yes, more or less that mister Salade…" Eclair answered sadly. "They only told my mother, the guards present, and me. But you can be sure that the word will spread…"

"What are we going to do?" Culotte asked.

It was official now. The Church of the Goddess Poitreene had a personal vendetta against them on the grounds that they had permitted the Dark Prince to live. And the worst part was that they couldn't deny it. The enemy was partly right.

"Maybe," Eclair risked, "we should tell the truth?"

"And say what Eclair?" cried out Culotte, visibly angry. "Oh yes, the ultimate evil is alive because somebody fell in love with him! And then, our only savior had to sacrifice her life just to make somebody happy! The Maiden killed herself for Prier's happiness! Is that what you want us to say to the public! And damn it… is she even happy? Alouette… she did everything for… nothing! For nothing damn it!"

Culotte stormed off, leaving a stunned duo of Eclair and Salade. Although Eclair had seen Culotte angry before, he had never acted like this. He was seeing red… She knew that after Alouette's death, Culotte had some resentment towards Croix… It was understandable, he did have feelings towards her. And she could understand that it was because of him that his, and everyone's, entire life changed.

"Does he really think that Mister Salade? Oh… Culotte…"

"Culotte… maybe the stress of the incident finally hit him…"

Eclair just stood there, her hand facing upright, catching some of the rain as it fell lightly. She had no idea what to do.

"Well Eclair, first thing is first. We should go out there and find Prier and Croix."

"But… they could be anywhere! And, they already have a head start and it's not like we can reach Homard this easily, and… and…"

"Don't worry," he said, looking over his glasses with a suspicious look, "I got it covered."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Prier woke up from her small nap. It was still nighttime, as least that's what she thought; it was rather hard to see the sky in the forest. The air was rather humid and she felt a little damp.

"Great, it's going to rain…" she thought as she decided that she should find better shelter then trees. If heavy rain was in the forecast, she would still end up wet, no matter how many trees there were. She restarted her trek through the woods, hurrying more then usual.

Through pure luck, she actually found the exit, or rather an exit. Not only was she finally out of the woods, but she had landed next to a village.

"This is great," she thought, and sincerely this time. When there is a village, food, shelter, and heat could be found. Happier then she had been in days, she walked along what she thought was the village's main road. Of course, being in the middle of the night, no lights could be seen from inside the houses. She had had her hopes up for an inn of some sort, but first of all, she didn't know her way around the village and even if she did, this place didn't seem to have anything opened late at night. It was either very late at night, if not to say very early in the morning or this place was barren of inns, and even a bar. She would have gone to a tavern, knowing that these things are usually opened at night, but none could be seen, or heard, for she knew that she could always get directions from echoes of badly sung drunken folkloric chants.

Finally, tired and discouraged, she found her way to what she imagined was the town square. The last thing she wanted was to use a piece of wood used as a bench to double as her bed for the night. Ticked at the town, but mostly herself, she wondered around in circles, keeping her noise level at a low. Hey, maybe she had a reputation around Pot au Feu of being a loud self-centered brat, but she did know how to behave, something that she sometimes thinks her entourage forgets.

"Miss?"

She turned around to find a rather confused man staring at her. Finally, someone was awake in this village.

"Umm… I just arrived in town and…"

But her sentence was cut short as she heard two small detonations from behind her. Her reflexes, never failing her, made her slightly turn sideways, dodging whatever went flying pass her. Keeping her turning motion, she plunged her fist into another man's gut, making him double over.

As she retracted her hand, she saw the fallen man in pain, a shotgun next to him, a rather primitive shotgun, but one that could still do its damage.

"You harmed a human you foul woman! You shall pay, you demon!" was the last thing she heard before a powerful pain echoed in her head as hard wood connected from behind.

.-.-

"A demon child?"

_Mmm…_

"No, just a witch."

_Ugh…_

"Kill her quick, before she destroys us!"

_Huh?_

"Get the hunter and prepare the fire!"

_Fire…?_

Prier managed to open her eyes. She was still in the town square, but it was now populated by about twenty or more people armed with everything from pitchforks to more shotguns. The square was now lighted by about an incredible amount of torches but it was still dark in the sky, so she hasn't been unconscious for a long time.

"The witch is awake," cried out a female voice, "quick, where's the killer?"

Strangely, although Prier was still confused, half-awake, unfocused, and most importantly, greatly outnumbered, the villagers weren't making a move. It was almost as if they were afraid of her. She tried to make out what the villagers were saying, only catching random bits of insults like "Kill the witch" or "Get the demon killer" until she finally heard: "Calamity's servant."

"Oh no," she thought, "I've fallen on more of these freaks."

And this time, she didn't know how to get out of it. She was weak and her head still hadn't stopped spinning. Plus, her blurry vision lied to her: the entire adult population of the village was present, not just a few. The only reason she was still alive was due to the fact that they were just too scared of her to kill her. They wanted to leave it to a professional demon killer, convinced that only these people could resist her. Either that or they felt as if a curse was to hit the one who kills the witch, let it be a demon killer, not them.

All of this made would have made Prier laugh, if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation. Even if she would have been in top shape, she would have had trouble escaping an entire village. These people could kill her in an instant, yet they were scared of her.

Lightning ripped up the sky as the storm finally unleashed its rain. "The witch is using her magic!" cried out someone. "Where is he?"

"Oh please," Prier finally blurted out, not believing how naive these people could be, "it's just the passing of a storm!"

Not sure if it was the coldness of the rain that woke her up or if her energy just finally came back, Prier managed to get on her knees. Her sudden movement caused the mass to jump away from her. "Not bad," she thought, "if I can scare them, I might get out of this one." But just as she thought that, she felt a cold barrel against her forehead.

"Finally, that took long enough. Kill her, we beg you."

Prier felt the gun leave her forehead and she followed it as it slowly aimed at her chest. She heard three shots and she felt unimaginable pain in her chest as her breath got cut short. But, nothing could compare to the pain her last vision, before the dark claimed her sight, brought her.

The villagers and the shooter watched as the girl fell backwards, completely immobile, her body drenched by the rain.

"You took your sweet time there!" said the village elder, turning to the killer, visibly annoyed.

"Sorry, I had stuff to do…"

"Sometimes I wonder what we pay you for Mister Croix Raoul…"

* * *

_Ok, I really think I just signed my death wish…_


	5. Chapter 4

**The Paradox of Balance**

_**Chapter 4: Hell Hath No Fury…**_

_I still don't really understand what made me say these things back there…_

_Do I really think that way? Yes, deep in my heart, I… am resentful towards him…_

_But I have to get over it. I promised Alouette that I would accept her death. I mean, I really do understand that I can't entirely blame him. But I guess that deep within me, I…_

_I hate him…_

_I don't want to go back there, I don't want to hate him… I don't want to see that part of me ever again…_

- - - - - - - - - -

"I don't understand how you can tolerate being so ugly Hermes."

Standing, or rather floating into the nothingness that was this alternate dimension-slash-prison for the Mediator, Iris stared at Hermes' "human" form. Beings like them could take on whatever form they wanted. Hermes liked to become some rather huge "thing" in the human world. Iris never understood how one could stand being ugly. Even in this dimension, Hermes was "ugly". He had taken on the appearance of an old man, whereas she was a beautiful, if she could say so herself, young blonde woman.

The two of them had been in a staredown for what could be compared to more or less a human week, which means, not a long time for those two. They had been staring at each other in complete silence for all this time, Iris' small comment being the first spoken words ever since the abduction.

"This appearance makes me invisible to most eyes Iris."

"Of course… who would want to stare at gray hair?"

"You always liked being the center of attention…"

They went into silence, but this time Hermes was in deep thoughts. Iris… she had been his old mentor back before he had been appointed as the human world's Mediator. This, of course, was so long ago that it was impossible to calculate using human time references. Iris, being more advance, had been selected to become his teacher, and a good teacher she had been, even though at some points in her training, she had mislead him in order to remain the strongest out of the two. But when the title of Mediator had been appointed, Hermes received it, at Iris' surprise.

"You still haven't let go of the fact that I got to be the Mediator, haven't you?" realizing too late that he had just crossed the line.

"I should have been the Mediator!" she screamed, pointing her finger menacingly at Hermes. "But YOU had to get it, even though I…"

"Here we go again," he thought as he mentally blocked out Iris temper tantrum that he had already heard many times before. He just crooked his head and faked interest at Iris' speech.

"Iris," he finally said, "we've been over this millions of times before. What is left to say? You didn't get to be Mediator because you were lacking something that I have", he concluded using the same term that the Goddess had used to explain the situation once.

"Ah ha, this might be true… but this time… I'll have the last word… and even the higher forces with me."

He had known Iris for a long time, but he had never heard her say something like this. Regaining his concentration, he noticed Iris' look on her face. In all his life, he had never seen such a look. It was a look of certain victory, a look that said: "You are in deep trouble" but not in a scolding way. He understood that for the first time in their eternal quarrel, Iris might be on to something.

"I always knew that you were a bad Mediator, but now I have the proof," she said in a satisfied tone.

"What did I do that is so bad Iris?"

"You poor miserable fool…" she said looking up at him, "you don't understand?"

He could see that she was surprised, but what got on his nerves the most was the look of pity in her eyes. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, pensive.

"Hermes… you made it possible…"

"Spit it out Iris!" he said, annoyed.

"The destruction of the world," she said with a smile.

- - - - - - - - - -

Not losing a moment after Eclair's revelation, Salade instructed Sister Olive to let Culotte, Eclair, and himself go after Prier using his "special method", which turned out to be your common carriage.

"Wait…" blurted out Culotte, "why haven't we ever used that for our missions?"

A nervous Salade simply backed away in anticipation of retaliation. Culotte was Prier's brother after all… And Salade still remembered what happened the last time he brought upon himself the "wrath of Prier", although he must admit that Prier only managed to hurt him because he was busy with Alouette's own wrath at the moment. Prier was good, but she was still aeons away from matching him.

"This is great! We'll find Prier in no time with this!" said Eclair, desperately trying to switch the conversation topic. "Let's go!"

So the trio departed from Pot au Feu in a hurry. Salade was the driver, while Culotte and Eclair hung in the back.

"Have you noticed," she said, "even though mister Salade isn't part of the church, the Sisters still listen to him."

"Of course, no matter what, he'll always be Father Salade to the church."

The rest of the ride was made in silence.

-.-.-

At nightfall, they found a small cabin near the side of the road. As Salade stopped for directions, the two young demon hunters jumped out of the carriage, ready to regain some feelings in their legs.

"It's starting to rain here too…" Eclair said.

"Great… more dampness…"

"Alright," Salade said as he returned, "close to here is the village of Porte, but we need to stay out of that area, it seems that the village is not the place to go."

"Why not?"

"Well, the man and his wife there told me they ran away from this place. Most people there are rather strict about their beliefs…"

"The Church of the Goddess Poitreene?"

"Yes…"

They all silently nodded in unison as Culotte and Eclair went back into the carriage while Salade resumed his duties as driver, as rain poured down on them.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Well, since we can't burn her…"

It was the "tradition" in the village of Porte to burn the carcass of heretics since they believed that the body of the victim could still bring forwards small calamities and disasters. But, since heavy rain was pouring down upon them, all thanks to that witch, they couldn't exactly burn her.

They were all staring at her corpse. Once again, it had been another weak woman who fell into Calamity's ruse of power. If they hadn't stopped her, she would have probably tried to corrupt their minds with her charm, especially the way she was dressed. Before the torches went out due to the wind and rain duo, they managed to get a good look at the witch. What kind of man wouldn't resist to a woman wearing such tight and skimpy clothes? She was probably there to steal children from the men's insides only to later give them to Calamity. It was a good thing they killed her. And it was a very good thing that this demon killer, Croix, was working for them.

Most of the villagers had regained their houses trying to get out of the downpour. The elder, Croix, and a few of the Porte elite remained at the mob scene. The subject of their impromptu meeting was the disposal of the filthy being that was before them. With incineration out of the way, no other method seemed possible without contaminating the village. Finally, after a rather small discussion, it was the elder who found the best solution possible.

"You want to dump the body in the river?" questioned Croix, arching an eyebrow. "But aren't you going to contaminate others while doing so?"

"Well, the nearest village is Carreau and they are not followers of Poitreene," he said, failing to recognize the puzzled expression on Croix's face. "Let them have Calamity's curse. Maybe then they will finally understand the necessity of following the Goddess", he finished, surprisingly sounding rather angry with an invisible matter.

So, grabbing the body's arms, they dragged her to the river and proceeded to push her in where she floated away in the current. Tired and wet, they all headed back to their respective homes as if nothing had happened. The only exception was the demon hunter who decided to stay behind just in case her death might have already summoned curses for Porte. Tired and annoyed, the elder found nothing to say against that logic and hurried home to get dry.

As soon as they left Croix's already diminished, due to rain and darkness, field of vision, he walked along the riverside. Although the rain was starting to get the best of him, he kept walking and listening, although he couldn't hear much due to it. He kept walking for a minute or so before he finally heard what he was waiting for, well… more or less what he wanted to hear…

"I-Hate-You-Croix-Raoul," a muffled female voice broken by heavy breathing managed to say.

"Hello to you too, Prier."

She had managed to drag herself near the shore, but this effort had drained her of her energy. She was lying down in the mud, with barely enough energy to keep her torso above the ground to stare at him by resting on her arms. Although he couldn't really see her, he had the vague impression that she was beyond mad, and that if she could move…

"What did you shoot me with?" she moaned out weakly.

"Blanks, but at that range, even I'm surprised that you're not that hurt…" he said, not seeing the look on Prier's face.

"My chest is on fire!" she said before crashing to the ground.

Croix went up to her and lifted her up into his arms, ignoring her outraged moan. No matter what the situation, it seemed that Prier would rather die then let a man help her. He carried her away from the freezing river. She was in a pretty bad condition: the entire upper frontal part of her dress was ripped and burned, and he could only imagine the damage done under it. Fortunately, the darkness prevented him to view it.

"You got lucky that it was dark and rainy or else they would have noticed the lack of blood."

"**_Lucky_**!" she tried to cry out outraged, "You _shot_ me, you dumped me in a river while I was unconscious… Heck you almost killed me, and you say that I'm _lucky_!"

"Hey!" he said, Prier's tone getting on his nerves, "It was either that or you would have been lynched. You decide!"

They simply stared at each other in pure fury. Both of them were getting progressively mad at one another. Prier was furious, for all obvious reasons, while Croix was starting to lose his temper due to Prier's reaction. Of course, it would have been stupid to imagine that she would have been ecstatic after his intervention, but she could at least understand what he had done. He really felt like dropping her there in the middle of the village and letting her deal with her problems. If she didn't appreciate what he did for her, well…

But he didn't. In a silence only broken by Prier's random labored breathing noises, he brought her back to what she referred as "an old shack", which was actually much better once inside.

Still angry with each other, Croix simply dropped her there and went back outside for a smoke on the front porch. Ignoring him, Prier, who somehow managed to stand on her feet, simply headed towards what she thought was the bathroom to examine the damages.

She was in a pretty bad shape. In fact, after the few steps she took, she felt unable to stand up on her own. The combination of her injuries, her pain, and her overall fatigue made it hard for her to stay on her feet. With the wall as her only support, she proceeded to remove her clothing to uncover the truth about her wounds.

Well, from what she could see, and feel, her torso had been burned. Her clothing managed to prevent some damage, but her superficial burns were still very painful. When that blank connected with her, it felt as if she received a Mooboo's hoof at full speed in her chest, which send, and still sent, throbbing pain through her entire body and knocked her out. Her trip down the river managed to cut and bruise the rest of her body, though to be quite fair, had brought very light pain when compared to her previous injuries. When she had woken up in the river, she had used her leftover power to conjure a "recovery" miracle. Although her healing abilities were sadly limited and she couldn't exactly heal herself, it did managed to prevent possible infection and it limited the pain. She still felt like hell, but it was actually tolerable. The effects wouldn't last very long, but it was better then nothing, and it did made her realize that she might want to work on her healing.

She tried to slowly get away from the wall in order to go in search of bandages and the likes, only to find out that her body decided to stop responding.

And as she crashed onto the floor, her only thoughts were about how the night would be long… Very long…

- - - - - - - - - -

Unable to see due to the rain and his fatigue, Salade decided that it might time to stop for the night. Happy to oblige, Culotte and Eclair jumped out of the carriage, only to realize that they were rather stuck to sleep inside of it anyway. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, not a single hint of civilization outside of them, they came to the conclusion that they would spend the night rather cold and wet.

About halfway through the night, Salade woke up alone in the carriage. Both Culotte and Eclair seemed to have disappeared from their place. Although he did have to admit that the carriage was not the most comfortable place to sleep, he was quite surprised that they would rather venture out in the rain.

His main plan was to step outside and find them, but it quickly became more drastic. After a few minutes of walking in the rain, using his coat has a makeshift umbrella, he heard what he thought was Culotte screaming. Not losing a moment, he dashed towards the muffled voice, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

Culotte was kneeling on top of Eclair, his hands at her throat. Eclair was using the last of her strength to try to fight Culotte off, but with no avail. Salade, momentary paralyzed by what he saw, finally headed towards them in a fury in order to separate them.

But before he even reached them, sparks shot out from the sky and landed on the boy, who reared up under the pain. Using that moment, although Salade didn't exactly saw how, Eclair pushed him off. Then, she hurled herself at Culotte, tackling him to the ground and proceeded to punch him in the face over and over again.

Both of them got immediately separated as Salade ripped Eclair away from him and forced Culotte to his feet. He simply stared at them, confused. Eclair was still wheezing and Culotte was holding his right leg in pain. "That wasn't made by the lightning or her last attack," he thought. Looking at Eclair, he noticed that she too was wounded more seriously then she should have been. "What's the matter here? How long has this been going on?"

But he never got his answers as they both grabbed him and hurled him away, right before returning to their fight. This time, both of them were locked in what could be referred as a battle. They just attacked each other; not even a word of hate was exchanged.

Salade, getting up, felt as if it was time to use physical persuasion to get through. He got up and slowly headed towards the two of them, clenching his fist in anger.

But then, it hit him. How could two kids hurl him to the ground with such force? Even Prier couldn't do that, and she was clearly stronger then Culotte and Eclair combined. And while he was at it, why in the world would he think of getting physical with the two of them? Sure he would sometimes throw a punch or two, especially at a certain red-hair girl, but he would never attack them. In a confused state, he simply stared at his fist. And he saw _it_.

His fist, for some odd reason, seemed distorted. Usually, people like him could spot these types of things rather easily, but for some reason, he just couldn't now. Focusing on his fist with great intensity, he saw that his entire hand was covered in semi-transparent black flames.

Trying to remain calm, he looked at the two fighters. Both of them were completely engulfed by the black flames. But how?

He kept staring at his hand and he noticed smaller flames forming in his palm. And then, he got it.

"By the Goddess… No, anything but that!" he said, staring at the sky.

This was a bigger problem then he originally thought.

* * *

_Pff, I actually had to cut the chapter in two for this one. And, just to notify, the next update could take a while. I'm now entering my end of session exams, so the fics are going to wait. Sorry, but biology is more important then Prier. Plus, since I don't have the net at home and the library is always closed near Christmas, I won't be able to upload unless an exception arises. So… umm… Happy Holidays, and don't touch that fruitcake if you know what's good for you!_


End file.
